Security continues to present challenges as hackers and other malicious parties attempt to gain unauthorized access to sensitive computers and associated networks. The prior art is full of examples that attempt to reduce such unauthorized access. One of the most rudimentary forms of security is the requirement for users to present a unique login and password combination. Once the user is logged in, other security techniques can be employed such as the use of encryption of the user's communications to reduce eavesdropping.
Many problems persist with prior art security techniques. For example, it is accepted that the greater the security protocols, the greater difficulty it can be for the user to actually make use of the computer. For example, it can be required to have the user reenter the login and password after a period of inactivity. If that period of inactivity is excessively short, the user will spend more time authenticating him or herself rather than actually performing the computing task. By the same token, where the user switches between several different computing devices to access the computer network, it can be tedious to require the user to reenter the login and password each time the user switches to the other devices. Still further problems arise when the switch of user devices also involves the user switching the type of network being utilized.
A still further security problem arises when the user leaves the computer unattended, without having logged out. Inactivity timeout periods are commonly employed, wherein the user is automatically logged out if they have not used the computer for a predefined period of time. However, there is still a risk of malicious activity occurring after the user has left the computer unattended, but before the inactivity period has expired.